Understanding perspective
Perspective, in its most simple sense, is the technique in which you take something that is two-dimensional (a drawing or painting) and give its contents a sense of three-dimensional space. Alternatively, you can think of perspective as the viewer's eye line. What is our perspective of what we're looking at? Are we above our subject, looking down? Are we eye-level with what we're looking at? Are we viewing our subject from below, or does it have a crazy effect such as fish-eye lenses? Each one of these options can give the viewer a different narrative of your artwork and can be very impactful in selling a concept correctly. Let's break down the three most used perspectives in painting, all of which are considered linear perspectives – one-point, two-point, and three-point perspectives. Let's start with one-point perspective.
One-point perspective
One-point perspective is defined as a perspective grid that consists of a...